Binance reports 'potential security issue' as stablecoin issuers freeze millions in funds

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said Thursday it’s investigating reports of a potential security issue as its founder said the incident “does look like a hack on Binance.”

It wasn’t immediately clear the extent of the damage hackers might have been able to accomplish and Binance had not explicitly confirmed that funds had been pilfered, but stablecoin issuers quickly froze funds Thursday evening.

“Rest assured that user funds are completely safe,” a Binance spokesperson said in a statement.

“Our security teams are reviewing all relevant information with urgency, and we will provide updates through official Binance channels as soon as we have verified information,” the statement continued.

Stablecoin providers Tether and Circle each said they froze funds Thursday in response to the incident.

Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle, wrote on X that the company had frozen the equivalent of more than $800 million in currency associated with the incident “in coordination with law enforcement.” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on X that the company froze the equivalent of more than $1.5 billion in currency related to “a potential Binance exchange hack.”

The price of bitcoin dropped 3.2% Thursday evening to under $79,000.

Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, who in 2023 pleaded guilty to a felony related to his failure to prevent money laundering on the platform and stepped down as CEO. President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2025.

Zhao posted on X on Thursday that “User funds are safe!” but added that the incident “does look like a hack on Binance.” He added that while he doesn’t manage Binance anymore, “as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered.”

Zhao was released from prison last year after being sentenced for violating the Bank Secrecy Act. He was the first person ever sentenced to prison time for such violations of that law, which requires U.S. financial institutions to know who their customers are, to monitor transactions and to file reports of suspicious activity. Prosecutors said no one had ever violated the regulations to the extent Zhao did. Zhao and Binance have been key supporters of some of the Trump family’s crypto enterprises.

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AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay contributed.